STANFORD, Calif. — NEARLY five years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers touched off a global financial crisis, we are no safer. Huge, complex and opaque banks continue to take enormous risks that endanger the economy. From Washington to Berlin, banking lobbyists have blocked essential reforms at every turn. Their efforts at obfuscation and influence-buying are no surprise. What’s shameful is how easily our leaders have caved in, and how quickly the lessons of the crisis have been forgotten.

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From Wall Street to the City of London comes the same wailing: requiring banks to rely less on borrowing will hurt their ability to lend to companies and individuals. These bankers falsely imply that capital (unborrowed money) is idle cash set aside in a vault. In fact, they want to keep placing new bets at the poker table — while putting taxpayers at risk.


When we deposit money in a bank, we are making a loan. JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank, had $2.4 trillion in assets as of June 30, and debts of $2.2 trillion: $1.2 trillion in deposits and $1 trillion in other debt (owed to money market funds, other banks, bondholders and the like). It was notable for surviving the crisis, but no bank that is so heavily indebted can be considered truly safe.

The six largest American banks — the others are Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — collectively owe about $8.7 trillion. Only a fraction of this is used to make loans. JPMorgan Chase used some excess deposits to trade complex derivatives in London — losing more than $6 billion last year in a notoriously bad bet.

A massive crowd attended the March on Washington today to honor Dr. King’s dream, and to let Republicans know that they are ready to fight for their rights. The size of the crowd was best captured in the photo by AirPhotosLive:



Compare this to the photos from the last tea party protest in DC over the “IRS scandal”:



The Democratic event featured speakers from different groups and organizations that all agreed on an agenda. Speaker after speaker at today’s event discussed issues like raising the minimum wage, fighting voter suppression, restoring the gutted sections of the Voting Rights Acts, economic opportunity, civil rights for all Americans including the LGBT community, stand your ground laws, and immigration reform.

The Democrats offered a broader more inclusive agenda, and this big tent was reflected in the difference in the diversity of attendees at each event. The IRS protest featured an almost completely white, male, and older American crowd. The March on Washington was striking in its diversity. There were Americans of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and sexual orientations at the event. The March on Washington included more Americans from every part of America.

The slide really started more than three decades ago with so-called “tax revolts” by a middle class whose earnings had stopped advancing even though the economy continued to grow. Most families still wanted good public services and institutions but could no longer afford the tab.

Since the late 1970s, almost all the gains from growth have gone to the top. But as the upper-middle class and the rich began shifting to private institutions, they withdrew political support for public ones. In consequence, their marginal tax rates dropped — setting off a vicious cycle of diminishing revenues and deteriorating quality, spurring more flight from public institutions.

Tax revenues from corporations also dropped as big companies went global — keeping their profits overseas and their tax bills to a minimum. But that’s not the whole story. America no longer values public goods as we did decades ago.

The great expansion of public institutions in America began in the early years of 20th century, when progressive reformers championed the idea that we all benefit from public goods. Excellent schools, roads, parks, playgrounds and transit systems would knit the new industrial society together, create better citizens and generate widespread prosperity.

WASHINGTON — Representative Kerry Bentivolio, a freshman Republican from Michigan, has a legislative dream. It is not to balance the federal budget, or find a way to help his ailing state or even take away money from the federal health care program, a goal that has so animated many other Republicans this summer.

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Mr. Obama’s supporters seem something short of terrified. “I think there are a lot of challenges ahead,” said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to Mr. Obama. “But impeachment is not one of them.” He added: “The bottom line is that it would be enormously self-destructive for the Republicans to waste time on what is a plainly empty expression of primal, partisan rage.”

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When President George W. Bush was in office, many liberal groups and some Democrats clamored for impeachment proceedings, largely over the Iraq war. But the House speaker at the time, Nancy Pelosi, never entertained the idea, calling it “off the table” more than once.

The issue, though, can be just the sort of red meat that constituents throw on the town hall grill when meeting with members, especially in the most conservative Congressional districts. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a conservative former prosecutor, acknowledges that voters raise the issue with him, which he said he deflects with, “Have you met Joe Biden?” The exchange usually ends with laughter.

MINNEAPOLIS — One of the first inklings Sheriff Richard Stanek had that something was wrong came with a call from the mortgage company handling his refinancing. “It must be a mistake,” he said, when the loan officer told him that someone had placed liens totaling more than $25 million on his house and on other properties he owned.

But as Sheriff Stanek soon learned, the liens, legal claims on property to secure the payment of a debt, were just the earliest salvos in a war of paper, waged by a couple who had lost their home to foreclosure in 2009 — a tactic that, with the spread of an anti-government ideology known as the “sovereign citizen” movement, is being employed more frequently as a way to retaliate against perceived injustices.

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“It affects your credit rating, it affected my wife, it affected my children,” Sheriff Stanek said of the liens. “We spent countless hours trying to undo it.” Cases involving sovereign citizens are surfacing increasingly here in Minnesota and in other states, posing a challenge to law enforcement officers and court officials, who often become aware of the movement — a loose network of groups and individuals who do not recognize the authority of federal, state or municipal government — only when they become targets. Although the filing of liens for outrageous sums or other seemingly frivolous claims might appear laughable, dealing with them can be nightmarish, so much so that the F.B.I. has labeled the strategy “paper terrorism.” A lien can be filed by anyone under the Uniform Commercial Code.

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The sovereign citizen movement traces its roots to white extremist groups like the Posse Comitatus of the 1970s, and the militia movement. Terry L. Nichols, the Oklahoma City bombing conspirator, counted himself a sovereign citizen. But in recent years it has drawn from a much wider demographic, including blacks, members of Moorish sects and young Occupy protesters, said Detective Moe Greenberg of the Baltimore County Police Department, who has written about the movement.

I heard that about 15 people go arrested for singing in Wisconsin’s Capitol today. This was the 14th day of mass arrests of singers at the Capitol since July 24th. Each day’s arrests are in teens or 20′s. (If you’re new to all of this, people have been singing about social justice and labor rights and more in protest at the WI capitol since March of 2011.)

This was the 2nd day of singers holding letters to spell UNINTIMIDATED and once again, those folks who held letters were targeted by police.

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Here’s a 7 minute video from ScottWalkerWatch which starts out featuring the song “I don’t want your millions mister” At the 2:43 mark you can see an influx of cops arresting letter holders. At the 3:24 mark everybody launches a new song: “Which side are you on”. At 4:07 you’ll hear, “Will the circle be unbroken”.



The intent of the singers is no different now than it was a month ago: Sing joyously, leave, do it again the next day. Unfortunately, many singers are now being arrested, despite their desire to simply express themselves in a public forum. They are pleading not guilty in court. They are requesting jury trials. Their best defense will be to show the juries that they were there peacefully expressing their First Amendment rights, and nothing more.

Wisconsin would cut more people from Medicaid than any other state as part of a plan advanced by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, according to an independent analysis of data by Kaiser Health News.

About 92,000 Wisconsin citizens, including 87,000 parents and caretaker relatives, and 5,000 childless adults with incomes above the federal poverty level, would lose the Medicaid coverage they previously had as a result of a waiver. Those people would be sent to the online insurance marketplace.

At the same time, the state is planning to add 100,000 Wisconsin childless adults with incomes below the poverty level to Medicaid.

Wisconsin is one of only four states that will reduce their Medicaid eligibility, according to the report. The other three, and the number of people who will lose coverage, will include: Maine, 35,000; Vermont, 19,000 and Rhode Island, 6,700. Kaiser Health News collected enrollment data from the four states. The changes they plan still need federal approval, which is expected.